Bank replaces stolen ATM with new machine
Central News Agency
2016-01-11 03:32 PM
Central News Agency (2016-01-11 15:03:58)
Workers were busy installing a new automated teller machine (ATM) at the Tainan Rende branch of King's Town Bank Monday after robbers ripped out one of the ATMs and made off with about NT$4.11 million (US$122,925) in cash in the early hours of Sunday.
The Rende branch opened as usual at 9 a.m. Monday but all of its ATM services were temporarily suspended due to the installation work.
The robbery occurred around 3:16 a.m. Sunday and took only about seven minutes, according to police, who said the thieves appeared to be very familiar with the bank's operations and its security system.
Footage from the bank's security cameras showed a man wearing a black face mask and a baseball cap getting out of a black sedan, entering the 24-hour ATM kiosk and trying to rock an ATM machine.
He then left the kiosk and went to a nearby store to buy a plastic container, which he used to stand on when he returned to the bank at 3:19 a.m., and sprayed paint on the security cameras, police said.
The man then cut the wiring to the ATM machine and removed the unit in only seven minutes, police said.
Security guards were alerted by an alarm but by the time they arrived at the bank, the ATM had already been removed and the robbers had disappeared, police said.
At least two suspects were involved in the robbery, according to police, adding that they believed it was the same two people who attempted to remove an ATM in neighboring Kaohsiung City about an hour before the Tainan heist.
The stolen ATM, which weighs 400 kilograms, was stocked on Friday with NT$5 million in cash and has a capacity to hold NT$10 million, according to a bank source.
The bank, which has 65 branches around Taiwan, will file an insurance claim for the losses, the source said.
